MORE Christmas in my booth at Stars

Took the rest of my Christmas goods to Stars this week.

Both of my spaces are fuller than full!

Plenty of vintage white Ironstone dishes in my wall space.

 Unique hand crafted gift boxes, perfect for that ‘little gift’ or gift cards.

Hand painted Christmas signs, red glass jar lanterns come with a battery votive and SO CUTE little vintage style car with tree on top ornaments.

Trees.  Trees and MORE trees!  Bottle brush trees in just about every size and color; mounted on unique vintage bases: candle holders, tart tins, glass vials filled with ‘snow’, spools of thread and cherub candle holders!

‘Snowfolk’ made from vintage salt and pepper shakers are making an encore appearance this year; but it will be their final year.  Get them while you can.  Bottle brush trees and snowmen are the perfect winter decorations to leave out after Christmas and before you decorate for Valentine’s Day.

Vintage crepe paper rosette ornaments also make wonderful package toppers.

Vintage sheet music rosette ornaments with classic Christmas color adornments of red, gold and silver.

Both Stars malls are open 7 days a week; 11am – 6pm.

Give unique vintage and upcycled gifts this Christmas.

Quick Change

Well, not really all THAT quick (it took me three hours), but a considerable change in my booth layouts.

My original ‘plan’ to put in a completely new vignette in my little wall booth has been abandoned.  I’m not abandoning the space, just the idea for changing it out.  Why?

My thought process in deciding to change it up monthly was that it was a small enough space and it would be fairly easy to do so.  It was a LOT more work than I had anticipated.    Not that I necessarily eschew hard work, but it was getting to be too much for my ‘bad back’ to handle.

AND the aisle along the back is much narrower than the central aisles.   It was next to impossible to move stuff around without blocking the aisle for shoppers to traverse.  So I decided to put mostly small items in my wall booth.  Small stuff is easier to stock without getting in the way of shoppers.

Fortunately for me, the owner scheduled a ‘dealer work shift’ Saturday, which gave dealers 3 hours to work without any customers.  I took advantage of that time to move the big metal rack from my big boot to the wall space.  Which sounds fairly simple, but it was a pretty big undertaking.

First I had to empty and move four shelves on the back aisle side of my big booth in order to access the big metal shelf.  Then I had to empty the metal shelf.  Move the stuff that was in the area of the wall booth where I was going to put the metal shelf; then move that big heavy shelf to the wall space.  Put all the product back on the metal shelf.  Figure out where I wanted to put the four shelves I had moved out of the way.  Then figure out where to put the stuff I had taken from the wall space!  Believe me, I needed every MINUTE of the three hours allotted for us to work without any interference.

Normally I have what I am going to do with my booths pretty well thought out ahead of time.  As soon as I decide to take a new piece of furniture in, I start thinking about where I will put it and how I will move things around.  So I had measured ahead of time and knew where I was going to move the big metal shelf to, but beyond that I just drew a blank.  Had to ‘wing it’ this time.  I’ll be changing this up again next week when I take the leftover Christmas product from the show in, and pull the last little bit of fall left.

It feels SO much bigger without that metal shelf in the middle!

Took these two cute little upcycled tables in last week.

The bottom photo here is the space where the big metal shelf used to be.  Haven’t quite decided what I want to do there.  This will do for fine for now though.

Some pretty vintage liqueur bottles.  Perfect for putting homemade liqueurs for gift giving in.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ready or not . . .

 . . . . Thanksgiving, the Christmas will be here before you know it.  I’m getting a head start and brought in a few holiday decor things to my booth at Stars this week.  Then tomorrow I deliver to the ‘Every Husband’s Nightmare’ show in Hillsboro.  After that show ends next Saturday, I’ll have even MORE holiday goodies to bring to Stars.

Here’s what I’ve done to start off the season:

I think my decorating theme for this year is ‘simple elegance’.  Lots of pretty vintage glass baubles in jars and bowls with mini fairy lights give off a truly magical glow!

It’s almost impossible to truly capture the beauty of the little lights in pictures and in the well lit store; but you get the idea.  Some of these arrangements are ‘all inclusive’ pieces, where I have priced the container with the lights and baubles to be sold together as one item.  The rest of them are priced individually so you can just buy what you need.  If you already have the glass baubles and just need the container to put them in, OR if you have the container and just need a few more glass baubles.

SO many different ways to display these holiday lovelies.  Think outside the box and use what you have to place your ornaments in.  Or buy something that will serve multiple purposes.

This is actually a cupcake stand!  Pretty little boxes with bows always add a festive touch to your decor, and you’ll have a gift box handy if you need one for a last minute gift!

I’m pretty sure that the white metal stand filled with ornaments was intended for this very purpose.  But you could also use it at Easter to hold your colored eggs.

Milk glass punch and candy bowls look pretty filled with ornaments too!

You can even fill the dome lid of your cake stand with baubles!  It’s a bit of a tricky process and you have to be sure that no one inadvertently takes the lid off ‘to see what will happen’.  A mess.  A mess will happen.  Which is why I didn’t fill the ones in my booth with glass baubles!

I’ve got some awesome vintage crystal snack plates with cups for you holiday entertaining.  And some beautiful silver espresso cups and saucers.

There is never a shortage of Milk Glass dishes or vases in my booth!  The milk glass vases are really pretty with vintage glass baubles on top of them too!

Always a plentiful supply and variety of stoneware dishes too.  Be sure you have all the serving bowls and platters you will need for serving your holiday feast.

I hate to admit it, but my wall space become more of a depository for ‘all the stuff I can’t fit into my big booth’, as opposed to a theme planned vignette.  A few bits of fall still available in my wall space.

Stop on by and get into the holiday spirit.

Stars is open 7 days a week; 11am – 6pm.

Ornament wreath #2

I was getting ready to pack away all my Christmas crafting supplies, and sorting the vintage ornaments I had by color to see IF I needed to look for more in the after-Christmas sales; and if so, what colors.

It ‘looked like’ I had enough on hand to make another wreath; and I decided to go ahead and do so while the steps were stiff fresh in my mind.

I elected to make this one using a slightly smaller ‘dynalite’ (that stuff that is denser and CHEAPER! than styrofoam).

Decided to cover this one with some tinsel garland before adding the ornaments; with the hope that IT would show through the ‘bare spots’ and I’d not feel compelled to fill every tiny nook and cranny.

Kind of cute even withOUT the ornaments added!

First layer.  (btw, the hot glue sticks MUCH better to the tinsel that it does to the fabric that I used to wrap the first one.  First layer; frosted white and rose gold med/lg ornaments.

Second and interior layer; shiney rose gold and gold ornaments.

Third layer; assorted med / lg ornaments ‘wherever they fit’.  The next few layers are assorted smaller ornaments to fill in the holes.

Alas, the gold tinsel ‘base-coat’ did NOT do the trick for me.  I LIKED it and will definitely continue to make the wreaths that way; but I still needed some ‘filler’ for bare spots.  This is where I had tucked in the snippets of white berries on my first one.  All I could find to use on this one was this mini star garland.

I clipped it into 5-6″ lengths and twisted the ends together and ‘flared out’  the ends to make a “Y” shape, so they looked like this teardrop shape.  I made a LOT of these!

Put some hot glue on the “Y” part and tucked them into all the bare spots.

And around the outside edge.

I just kept rotating the wreath and filling in the bare spots.

The more I added, the more I liked it!  I wasn’t sure about mixing the regular gold with the rose gold, but I like the combination just fine!

With tacky glue I glued a strip of fabric for it to hang from. It would probably be easier to add your hanger FIRST; but I find that the finished wreath looks better from a certain angel.  So I pick the best angel and add the hanger so it hangs that way.

LOVE how the color looks in this picture; almost a sepia tone look!

I think I like this one MORE than the first one.

Here’s a reminder of what the first one looks like.
And the newest one again, against a white background and ‘truer’ to actual color.

Just FYI, the second one took about HALF as much time to make.  Partly because I was more confident in the outcome and moved a little faster; and partly because the tinsel covered wreath from ‘grabbed’ the hot glue better and I didn’t have to ‘hold each ornament in place as long’ for it to set, before moving on to the next one.

I’m hoping to get brave enough next year to make some bright color ones!  And now, to figure out HOW to store them safely until next year!

Upcycled Ornament wreath

 . . . . and next on my ‘Crafting bucket List’ is making a wreath out of vintage ornaments like this:

(no, I did not make that one!  That picture is from Pinterest)  Every time I’d see one of these I’d just ‘sigh‘.  They are just SO glorious!!

(again, picture from Pinterest)  This is actually my ‘dream’ wreath.  The really vintage ornaments in pink and aqua; each one different and in unique shapes.

So, instead of just ‘drooling’ over the ones I saw on Pinterest, I started reading some of the tutorials.  Alas, they were as varied (and confusing!) as the burlap wreath tutorials.  Heavy sigh.

I had actually purchased a bunch of the ornaments AFTER Christmas for half price at Goodwill last year.  Then I got so overwhelmed with picking a color and/or theme that I just slapped price tags on them all and took the boxes of ornaments to Stars to sell; and was just going to scratch that one off my crafting bucket list, incomplete.

Then this last week while out thrifting, I came across a BIG bag of assorted white and silver ornaments.  Yes, ALL of those ornaments were together in one big bag.   Looked like the perfect amount for making one of these wreaths.

Found this white berry garland and braided seed bead rope garland and figured I could use them as ‘fillers’ for my wreath if needed.

This is pretty close to how I envisioned MY completed wreath turning out.

NOW, I just needed to decide which tutorial to ‘trust’.  Some said you could make on in 30 minutes.  HA!!  I spent ALL DAY working on mine.  And SO many of them showed this very same method as the photo above.  Just HOT glue the ornaments to a styro wreath form.  Styrofoam and hot glue do NOT go together well!

This ‘wire clothes hanger method’ looked pretty easy.  Glue all your ornament tops on (so they can’t pull off) then just slide your ornaments over your hanger and twist closed.  I had serious doubts that this would work as well as they claimed: the weight of the ornaments would likely turn your round form into an oval.  Besides, I don’t have any wire hangers.  (seriously, not a one!  I hate them!)

This tutorial used a grapevine wreath, and attached the ornaments in ‘bunches’ as opposed to ‘layer by layer’ as did nearly EVERY  other tutorial.  I opted to trust the majority and go with the layering method.  But NONE of the tutorials really went into detail beyond the first few layers.  (NOW I understand why!)

I opted to use one of the straw wreaths I had on hand, and conceded to the fact that I’d HAVE to hot glue the first few rows of ornaments on.  Hot glue will melt the plastic covering on the straw wreath, so I removed it, and it immediately started shedding and coming apart!  I tore up some strips of muslin and glued them around the straw.  Hot glue will adhere better to the muslin.

My first outer row consisted of 19 medium sized balls and one smaller one (cuz the bigger wouldn’t fit!)  Hot glued these in place with the loops facing down.  (this is the BACK of the wreath)

After I hot glued them, I went back over each connection with a dab of tacky glue.  Hot glue tends to not hold too well in the cold and I was thinking of using this wreath for my front door)

Second layer was on the inside; and took 13 small balls.  Attached with hot glue and reinforced with tacky glue.

Third layer was on the outside edge again, medium balls between each of the large ones. Since they had the first layer to support them while the glue dried, for this row I used JUST tacky glue.

Applied my tacky glue like this, them placed that end down into the space between the larger balls.

This row took 20 of the small balls; same size that I used on the inner row.

Fourth row was the tiny silver glitter balls (13 of them) between the first inner row balls.  Again, I used tacky glue for this.  Stopped here to let glue dry overnight.

Nice, neat row after row.

This is the last ‘defined’ row.  I used my largest balls, glued (tacky glue) one between every OTHER on the second outer row.  After this is when it gets ‘tricky’.  No more perfectly spaced rows.  You just have to fit ‘what you can where you can’.  NOW I understand why none of the tutorials go into much detail!

I clipped the white berry wreath into individual ‘sprigs’ using wire cutters.

Got abut 50 individual pieces.

‘Somewhat’ between the previous layer, I used my biggest balls, but not in a perfectly symmetrical pattern.  You just keep filling the holes with whatever size of ball will fit.  I used my tacky glue as much as possible, and hot glue only if I absolutely HAD to.

I continued taking photos, but at this point you really can’t tell exactly what I did and I can’t explain it!  Just glue on whatever fits over the ‘bare spots’ where your wreath form is showing through.

Keep going!

From a distance, it looks done.  And I’m guessing that this is where most people stop.

Looking up close and from different angels, there are still a lot of tiny bare spots.

And they BOTHERED me!

The snippets of white berries did the trick to fill those annoying little spots.  I just dipped the ends in tacky glue, and shoved them into every crack where the muslin was showing through.

I SHOULD have attached a hanging loop FIRST, but forgot to.  So this is how I did it ‘after the fact’.

The backside is not at all attractive!

Not bad for my first attempt, eh?

Granted the white berries ‘detract’ from the ‘look’ a bit.  And I probably could have filled the little holes with MORE tiny ornaments.  But I was trying to ‘use what I had’ and if I were to have set it aside to finish later . . . well, you KNOW how that goes!

Those really ARE silver shiney balls.  They are just reflecting the amber lighting in the room and LOOK gold-tone.

This is what was left of the supplies.  Just a few large and medium balls.  I used ALL the tiny and small balls and berry sprigs.  Did not use the seed bead garland at all.  Maybe on the NEXT one???

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A few more Christmas banners

Switching from NOEL to JOY for this batch of banners.

And used some gold glittered reindeer ornaments on either end.

Black crepe paper rosettes with oval paper centers and gold glitter letters.

The metallic blue letters I used on this one don’t LOOK very blue in the picture, but they are a very close match to the light blue crepe paper rosettes.

Decided to not put anything on either end of this one.

I kind of like this ‘simpler’ style.

The reindeer ornaments that I used on the first (and next) one; came in a pair; like this.

Can you see the cute tiny jingle bell necklaces they have on?  Only problem is, they both face the same direction!?!?

You probably can’t really SEE this, but I took a picture anyhow!  The backs are completely glittered, so I thought maybe I’d just remove the jingle bells so I could face one the opposite direction.  WELL, the bells are just ‘wired on’ with a very thin gold wire that is twisted to stay in place.

I just untwisted it, and it easily pulled out of the two holes; flipped it over and put the bells back on the back side!  Easy peasey!  Ready for another banner!

Decided to try attaching the banner ribbon to the reindeer’s LEG on this one (as opposed to the MOUTH on the first one)  AND left the clear hanging loop (attached to the antlers) on these to hang from.

Here’s the first one again.  Ribbon attached  at the mouth and hung from the antlers.

Which banner  placement looks better to you’; attached at the MOUTH or LEG??

Back to the second reindeer banner now.

I was a bit ‘iffy’ regarding using the kraft color rosettes on this one, but I DO like it now that it is finished.

Time to pack away all my Christmas supplies now and get started on VALENTINE stuff.  (seriously!)

50% off in my booth at Stars this Saturday & Sunday only

All three Stars stores are having a BIG SALE this Saturday and Sunday; 11am – 6pm.  Each booth owner chooses what % off they want to offer; and I am offering

50% OFF ALL REGULAR PRICED ITEMS IN MY BOOTH.

(This will NOT include ‘already discounted’ items with the ‘red sale tags’)

I spent 10 HOURS fluffing and stocking my booth this week, and it is JAM-PACKED for this sale!

Lots of unique hand crafted gift boxes and gift items.

Why not give something they can really USE??  Small furniture pieces make great gifts too.

Classic white dishes are always in style.

Collectible tureens (filled with sweets or a gift card?!?)

Cupcake stands.  Add a hand crafted ornament to the package instead of a bow.  Reduce and reuse!

Upcycled jewelry boxes.  Perfect for wrapping a piece of jewelry in!

Encrusted with vintage buttons.

Topped with a little nest and a bird.

Vintage finds; as found.

I always add a handful of my own hand cut and hand mixed paper shred to gift gift boxes.  This year I bagged up extra ‘sheet music’ paper shred.  It is hand folded and hand cut.  Save it to use again and again!

Of course there is plenty of Christmas decor too.   Unique and upcycled.

Classic gold.

Traditional Red!

Green!

Wall decor.

Decorated vintage ice skate instead of a wreath for your front door.

Paper rosette wreath ‘alternatives’ for indoor decor.

Peace on earth vintage atlas rosette wreath.

And ornaments.

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Lots ans LOTS of ornaments!

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One of a kind banners.

Glass apothecary jars, big and small!

Cloches and dessert stands make a great display for special treasures.

Stack up several desert stands to display cookies and candies on.

Decorative holiday pillows.

Plenty of turquoise/aqua gifts, decor and gift boxes of course!

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Little birds with crowns, always a staple in my booth!

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Decorated mach gift boxes.

Even a simple vintage bottle brush tree looks special under a glass cloche.

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Vintage glittered gold stars, to top your tree or tie onto a BIG wrapped gift!

White Christmas scenes, dessert stands and owls (with crowns, of course!)

After dessert is done, just plop A Christmas scene atop your dessert stand for an instant centerpiece!

LOTS of signs in stock for Christmas  giving!

At 50% off this weekend, why not but one for yourself too!?!

Like I said, my booth is JAM-PACKED!!

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Don’t forget to shop the OUTSIDE aisle too!  LOTS more product on the back side!

Vintage Madonna statues are a popular collectible.

This vintage French poodle is a decanter!  Very unique!

White and silver decor works for New Years too!

50% off sale, in my booth at Stars;  THIS Saturday and Sunday only

More Christmas bottles

Round 2 of the altered Christmas bottles.

Teeny tiny bottles in this batch and a fun ‘short squatty square’ bottle.

This was probably originally a perfume bottle.  Narrow opening that required I take the base off the tree (this tree from a set of 2 from Dollar Tree; covered with Mica flakes for a vintage look)  I had to wrap a bit of string around the wire tree base so it fit tighter in the opening, then glued it in place.

The side of this bottle was perfect for another ‘CHEER’ label!  I KNOW!!!  The ribbon doesn’t MATCH the label.  Shades of aqua and turquoise work together so well, I kind of LIKE mixing them.  (Also committed to ONLY using what I HAVE this year and not buying and NEW supplies!) **At least not until they are all half price AFTER Christmas to stock up for NEXT year!**

Itty bitty bottles are the vintage individual salt/pepper shakers.  (ALWAYS buy those when I can find them.  Use them for KNOBS on the glass cloches I make also!)  This tree is from a package of several from the craft store.  There were 2 sizes in the packages; this is the smallest size.  Was able to glue the base to the bottle top.
Sheer white bow and snowflake button glued on.

Another vintage salt shaker bottle in a cute ‘tree like’ shape.  Spray painted this little tree (from Dollar Tree) gold, removed base, wrapped stem with some string for a tight fit and glued into the opening.  Little metal snowflake ornament and thin satin ribbon instead of sheer this time.

Decided to leave this tree top bare.

These will also be going to my booth for sale.

Altered ice skates – part II

The second pair of ice skates I found were even SMALLER than the first pair!  And again, I anm trying to only use the craft supplies I have on hand this year.  (really NEED to pare down mu stash!)  So, these were both decorated the same!

Went a little more ‘traditional Christmas’ on these.

Vintage Santa is a scrap book piece that I glued to a wood skewer so I could ‘stick it’ into the greens.  Red glitter ornaments (from DT last year) were already ‘picks’.

Merry Christmas red glitter ornament tied to the stick of the ball ornament.

Greens with red berries were scraps from cut apart stems from other years.  Red glitter stems to add some interest. (and use them up!)

These 2 have gone to my booth st Stars.

LOVE it against the aqua background!!

Altered Christmas bottles

Rounded up a few small bottles from my stash to ‘Winter-fy’

Just ‘using what I have’ this year as far as supplies ans embellishments go.  It feels pretty good to pare down my stash a bit!

First, I partially filled them all with some fake snow (bought at Dollar Tree AFTER Christmas last year!)

Glued a little white tree that I covered with Mica flakes to the top, a sheer bow and a small metal snowflake ornament.  On top is a tiny snowflake BUTTON with a clear rhinestone glued to the center.

On this tall bottle, I glued a ‘CHEER” label to the front and tied and aqua bow around the neck.

Similar (but BIGGER) tree glued to the top of this one.  This one had a cork, so I took the base off the tree and screwed the tree into the cork; unscrewed it, put a dot of glue ion the hole and screwed it back in.

The previous bottle had a bigger opening and rim and no cork. so I glued it with the base still on.

This one is a triangle shaped bottle, small opening but good sized rim.  Blued this little bottle brush tree directly onto the opening.  Glued the JOY embellishment on and added a larger snowflake button to it.

These will be going to my booth at Stars Antique Mall soon.